Railway-car-roof construction



S. -OTIS. RAILWAY CARBOOF CONSTRUCTION. APPLICATION men NOV. 11, 1917.

1,340,667 Patented May 18,1920.

MIHHHHHH Index??? encer' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SPENCER OTIS, OFiCH I CAG O, ILLINOIS.

RAILWAY-CAR-ROOF CONSTRUCTION.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SPENCER OTIS, a citizen of the United. States, and resident of hicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Car-Roof Constructions, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to railway cars and more particularly to a roof construction therefor including doors.

The broad aspect of the arrangement herein shown is claimed in my copending application, Serial No. 225,401, filed March 29, 1918.

One of the objects of this invention is to facilitate the loading of cars.

Another object is to improve car roof door constructions.

Another object is to provide novel? car roof doors and their connection to the roof structure in a manner to meet the various requirements for successful commercial operation.

renerally speaking, these and other objects are accomplished by providing in a railway car, the combination of a roof frame member, and a door pivotally connected thereto whereby the car may be loaded.

The invention is illustrated on the accompanying sheet of drawings in which,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary plan view of a railway car embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of the same taken in the plane of line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view taken in the plane of line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

The various novel features of the invention will be apparent from the following description and drawings and will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Railway freight cars have been provided with various door arrangements whereby the cars may be loaded. In many cases the arrangements, especially where the doors are located in the roof, are not as satisfactory in use as they might be. I have provided a car roof door construction which will greatly facilitate the loading of cars.

By referring to the figures of the drawing, it will be noted that I have shown a freight car 10 having sides 11 and 12. The roof of the car includes longitudinally ex- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May is, 1920.

Application filed November 17, 1917. Serial No. 292,472.

the central roof construction including a walk 17. At each side of the central portion of the car roof there are provided a plurality of doors 18 and 19, the doors 18 being pivotally mounted on the longitudinally extending supporting member 13 and the doors 19 being pivotally connected to the longitudinally extending member 14, said doors being mounted for a swinging movement downwardly and outwardly with respect to the longitudinal center of the car.

The doors 18 are shown in raised or closed position and are held in such position by any suitable locking members 20 which are preferably pivotally connected to-the purlins 16. These members 20 are located normally under the doors l8 and 19 and arranged to support said doors. l/Vhen it is desired to open the doors these members 20 may be swung inwardly toward the center of the car in any suitable manner whereupon the doors 18 and 19 will be free to swing into an open position due to their own weight. The doors 18 are shown in closed. position and the doors 19in open position. These doors may extend the full length of the car or there may be only one of these doors, or there may be a plurality of the doors spaced at desirable distances from each other.

Preferably the doors are made of pressed metal and have strengthening ribs 21 running transversely of the ear, the doors also having at their ends flange 'portions 22 which engage with transversely extending stop members 23 when the doors are in their,

raised or closed position. These stop mem bers 23 overlie the ends of the doors in a manner to prevent rain and snow from getting into the car through the roof. All water and snow which collects on the doors 18 and 19 will drain outwardly and drip off at the sides of the car. When the doors are open, such as the door 19 shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the tail portion 24 extends slightly above the surface of the car roof thereby indicating that the door is open. When the doors are closed the tail piece 24.-

is flush with the sides of the outwardly eX- tending roof portions.

By means of this arrangement the doors may be held in their raised or closed position in a simple manner and when released will swing down into open position at any desirable point or points along the length of the car to facilitate loading thereof. As a matter of fact if desired all of the doors on both sides of the roof may be open at a time whereby different portions of the car may be loaded simultaneously.

There be various modifications of the invention and it is my intention to cover all such modifications coming within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a railway car having a permanent roof, the combination of a roof frame member, a door pivotally connected thereto for a downward movement into the car whereby the car may be loaded, and a locking member normally for holding the door in one of its positions.

2. In a railway car having a permanent roof, the combination of a roof frame member, a door pivotally connected thereto for a downward movement into the car whereby the car may be loaded, and a locking member for sustaining the door in its closed position.

3. In a railway car, the combination of a roof member, a door pivotally connected thereto whereby the car may be loaded, and a pivotally mounted locking member normally engaging the under side of the door for sustaining the latter in its raised position.

l. In a railway car having a permanent roof, the combination of a roof frame member, a door pivotally connected thereto for a downward movement into the car whereby the car may be loaded, means for limiting the upward movement of the door, and means for locking the door at its upper limit of movement.

5. In a railway car, the combination of a plurality of longitudinally extending roof members, transversely extending roof mem bers connecting the longitudinally extending roof members, a door pivotally connected to one of said longitudinally extending members for a downward movement into the car whereby the latter may be loaded, and a lock for said door connected to another one of said longitudinally extending roof members.

6. In a railway car, the combination of a roof structure including longitudinally extending members, carlines connecting said members, purlins supported by said carlines, a door pivotally connected to one of said longitudinally extending frame members for a downward movement into the car whereby the latter may be loaded, and looking means carried by one of said purlins normally for sustaining said door in one of its positions.

7. In a railway car, the combination of a roof structure including longitudinally extending members, carlines connecting said members, purlins supported by said carlines, a door pivotally connected to one of said longitudinally extending frame members for a downward movement into the car whereby the latter may be loaded, means for limiting the closing movement of said door, and locking means carried by one of said purlins normally for sustaining said door in its closed position Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 12th day of November, A. D. 1917.

SPENCER OTIS. 

